We Contend Earnestly For The Faith
Once Delivered To The Saints

"We trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men - specially
[or most fully and everlastingly] of those that
believe." - 1 Tim. 4:10.

"To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."
- 1 Cor. 8:6.

"All ye are brethren, and one is our Master, even Christ" (Matt. 23:8).
Our Master declares: "If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my
love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love."
"And this is his commandment, that we love one another."

WE SEEK TO WALK

Worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and
meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love;
endeavoring to preserve the unity of the spirit [oneness of mind] in the
bond of peace. There is ONE BODY [Church], with ONE SPIRIT [one
sentiment or disposition], even as we are called in ONE HOPE
of our calling; ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, ONE GOD AND FATHER
OF ALL, who is above all and through all in us all. - Eph. 4:1-6.

THE ONE BODY - is "the Church of the living God, the pillar and
support of the truth;" "the Church of the firstborn," "whose names are
written in heaven;" the "little flock," to whom it is the
Father's good pleasure to give the Kingdom; the members in particular of
the body of Christ; prospectively, Christ's Bride and joint-heir; the
"Seed of Abraham," of which our Lord Jesus is Head. Since Pentecost this
Church of Christ has been in process of selection from among justified
believers, or the general "household of faith;" and its members, when
complete and glorified, unitedly shall inherit the Abrahamic promise and
bless all the families of the earth. - Gal. 3:16, 29.

THE ONE SPIRIT - is the spirit of truth, the spirit of God, the
spirit of adoption as sons of God, which actuates and governs all who are
of the ONE BODY, in vital union with the one head, Christ Jesus. It is
the spirit of holiness, and chief among its fruits is Love.

THE ONE HOPE - which inspires all the members of the one body of
Christ, who have the one spirit of truth, is "the hope set before us in
the Gospel," and not hopes suggested from our own or other men's
imaginations or conjectures. The one hope is a "good hope" (2 Thess.
2:16), a hope of eternal life by a resurrection. (Titus 3:7.) The ground
of this hope is found in Jehovah's promises, confirmed unto us by the
death of our Lord Jesus as the ransom price for our sins, and by his
resurrection from the dead for our justification. - 1 Pet. 1:3; Acts
17:31.

THE ONE LORD - is the Head or Chief of the one body - his Church
possessing the spirit of Truth and actuated by the one hope of becoming
his Bride and joint-heir. He and the Father are one even as he and
his church are one. (John 17:11.) He is the redeemer of his church
as well as her Lord, Exemplar and Master. And he is the redeemer of the
whole world, and by virtue of that office he is to be the world's
Deliverer from Adamic sin and death. He it is who in all things has the
pre-eminence in Jehovah's plan and work. He was not only "the beginning
of the creation of God," "the first- born of every creature," but more: he
was the "beginning and the ending," he was the "Alpha and the Omega, the
first and the last," of Jehovah's direct creation; for all other "things
were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made."
(Col. 1:15, 18; Rev. 3:14; 1:8; 21:6; 22:13; John 1:3.) He it is who, to
carry out the Father's gracious plan, willingly left the glory which he
had with the Father before the world was created, and became a man - a
little lower than the angels - that he might, as a man, present himself in
sacrifice for the sins of man. Thus we behold him as the "Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a
ransom for all." (I Tim. 2:5, 6.) By his willing sacrifice of himself for
men he bought Adam and the entire race condemned through his fall,
and became Lord of all - not only of the living, but also of the dead,
with full power and authority to awaken and restore to all that was lost
whosoever accepts of the New Covenant of divine favor which, by his death,
he sealed and made effect to all. But our Lord is no longer in the flesh,
no longer a human being. He has finished the work of ransoming us, for
which the taking of the flesh was needful. He was indeed put to death in
the flesh, but was quickened [made alive] in the spirit. "Though we have
known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth we know him [so] no
more." As he was begotten of the spirit at his resurrection; and "that
which is born of the spirit is spirit." "Now the Lord is that spirit." (1
Pet. 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:16; John 3:6; 2 Cor. 3:17.) Because he showed his
obedience to the Father, and his confidence, in that he humbled himself to
become a man and tasted death for every man, therefore God highly exalted
him - far above manhood, far above the angelic nature; even far above his
own glorious previous station, and gave him a name [title] above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every
tongue confess, to the glory of God the Father. He made him partaker of
the divine nature and honor, "that all men should honor the Son even as
they honor the Father." "He is Lord of all." - Phil. 2:8-11; John 5:22,
23, 26; Acts 10:36.

THE ONE FAITH - is that we were reconciled to God by the death of
his Son, who died for our sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to
God; by whom we have accepted the at-one-ment with God, offered unto us.
Wherefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; being
cleansed by his blood [sacrifice] we are brought nigh to God and
are no longer strangers and foreigners, but children and heirs of his
favors, prepared for those who love him when brought nigh through his
precious blood. Through this faith we grasp the exceeding great and
precious promises of God as rapidly as we see them, and gladly appropriate
them to ourselves. Faith anchors our hearts securely to the precious
things of the future, though unseen as yet except to the eye of faith.
Faith is the power of God to every one that believeth.

THE ONE BAPTISM - Those of the one BODY and one HOPE
joined to the one LORD, possessing the one FAITH, are all
baptized or immersed into Jesus Christ. (Rom. 6:3.) As individuals they
have reckonedly ceased to exist: henceforth, for them to live is for
Christ, they thenceforth live, not unto themselves, but unto him that
bought them with his own precious blood. Their own wills are dead, and
henceforth they recognize only the will of the one Lord, the Head of the
body, which is his church, whose names are written in heaven. Justified
believers attain membership in this Church of Christ through this
burial or immersion of their hearts, their wills, into the wills of
Christ. And as the Apostle further declares, this immersion of our wills
(ourselves) into Christ is acceptable only when it is an immersion even
unto death - an entire, a complete immersion forever. "Know ye not that
so many of us as were immersed into Jesus Christ were immersed
into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by immersion
into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, we also [from the time of our consecration, the
immersion of our wills into that of our Lord,] should walk in newness of
life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be [sharers] also in the likeness of his resurrection" - the
first resurrection, to be with him and like him, partakers of the divine
nature. (Rom. 6:3-5; Phil. 3:10, 11.) This is the only real baptism of
which immersion in water is only the beautiful and appropriate symbol.

THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD.

THE CHURCH.--Heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, our Lord. The
Bride, the Lamb's Wife.

BASIS OF HOPE.--Ye were Bought with a Price, even the precious Blood
of Christ.--Accepted in the Beloved.

HER HIGH CALLING.--Therefore, being justified by Faith--we have this
Grace, wherein we rejoice.

HER PROSPECTS.--To share the Divine Nature--made like her Lord in the
First Resurrection.

PRESENT WORK.--Perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and
Witnessing to the World.

FUTURE WORK.--To bless and judge the world in righteousness, bringing
all to full knowledge of the Truth.

HOW TO ATTAIN THE PRIZE.--Wherefore, laying aside every weight and
sin, let us Run with Patience the Race; looking unto Jesus, who for the
same joy endured the Cross, despising the shame.

THE WARNING.--He that looketh back is not fit for the Kingdom. Let no
man take thy Crown.

ENCOURAGEMENT.--He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are
able.

HER GLORY.--Then shall the Righteous Shine forth as the Sun in the
Kingdom of their Father.